For the people that are having problems downloading from GameArena, here's a quick guide to the foolproof method that I use. This assumes you have some basic knowledge of DOS.

- Download wget, a command line http client.
- Extract the files in that zip and stick them somewhere in your path.
- Open a DOS prompt. Change directory to where you want to download the file to.
- Open the download page on GameArena for the file you want. For example, we'll say we want to download Quake 3 point release for linux.
- Click through to the download page.
- You'll see it says "If your download doesn't start, try downloading from the direct link
here.", with the 'here' bit a hyperlink.
- Right click on 'here'. Select Copy Shortcut.
- Go back to your DOS prompt. Type 'wget' and then click the top left icon on the dos window, go to edit, then paste. The URL for the shortcut will get pasted straight into the DOS box. Ninjas will have it already set up so you can just right click and it will paste the URL in there.
- Press enter. wget will respond with something like this:

--13:11:59--  http://files.wireplay.com.au/quake3/pointrelease/linuxq3apoint-1.31.x86.run

           => `linuxq3apoint-1.31.x86.run'

Connecting to files.wireplay.com.au:80... connected!

HTTP request sent, awaiting response...

It will just sit there, waiting for a response from the server. When there is a free connection, it will start downloading to the current working directory.
- If the download, for whatever reason, stops, just retype the line but with a '-c' between wget and the URL. This will tell wget to continue where it left off (omg, you don't need FTP after all!).

wget is a very handy util and this is only a small example of its use. Feel free to type wget --help to RTFM.

I use this method almost every time when downloading from GameArena, and trust me, I'm on the exact same cable and plan as everyone else. It works for me. If it doesn't for you, then you are either a) doing something wrong, or b) your connection is dodgy. The server, to the best of my knowledge, has no problems with sending files - the only problem is getting the initial connection, which may take several minutes in peak times.

Update: This post has been updated to point to the latest version of wget (1.9). Also, the following may be useful:

If you have a bunch of files you want to download, add them all onto the one wget command line: wget (url1) (url2) (url3) etc. It will download them one after the other, and theoretically there shouldn't even be a connection wait in between the files, as it will use the same connection.

wtf, using wget to dload stuff in windows...
what has the world come to :)

?!

bah, thank god I've got Optus.

why doesn't telstra just fork out for more servers since so many more people would be using this now?

cos tel$tra are misers

and telstra are helping trog count his money bags, and soon will give him a bonus, and telstra go backrupt(hopefully they do one day).

It's a sad day when you have to teach people how to download properly.

Ahem, my cheap shot at downloading from WP in your other thread, was aimed at the fact it's always full.

Yeh, I know, this is intended to help people get around it being full all the time

just use the ftp through windows... copy to folder..... easy
no waiting.

hmmm

128 spaces...

100,000 broadband customers..

hah flashget owns

good observation rommel

yeah i use flashget with out any probs :)

(updated)

hahahahah

Im glad that telstra has made it so easy for people to download !!!!!!!!

What can they do next to improve the internet !?!?!?!

they could bring in another download cap so less leechers would use it and it would be faster *cough*

meh DAP always gets the file fer me

yup... dap ems the go 4 me...

gotta love mirror searching.

quite often I'll clicky on a Wp file to download, only to find another server with a better ping and larger dl rate come up in the mirror listing.

Thats what flashget does for me too :)

I gave up downloading from wireplay ages ago - sadly I end up getting a lot from fileplanet.

Whats Wireplay?

Are you talking about Gamearena? :p

GameArena.. that site has the telstra hideousness, and natural sluggishness..

why oh why?!

:(

i'll tell you why, its to make wireplay more tel$traed.

in other words to f*** it up.

why doesn't telstra just fork out for more servers since so many more people would be using this now?

OMG I'm in agreement with VSFT about something :(

I feel dirtier than plok rollerblading past a preschool.

cuteftp pro its good

trog I tried doing multiple files like you said and it didn't work :o(

i don't even have to go there anymore.

I would like to thank Optus@Home for this post :D

There's nothing wrong with gamearena its the same old wireplay.

wireplay has always been telstra you fools, the game servers are great now and the optus ones are still run by clueless gimps so go figure.

However Dan, in days gone by telstra users werent slugged with a 3gb cap limit, thus necessitating using telstra's gaming service to get their day-to-day files from, no?

I mean sure, force people to use the service to avoid prohibitive bills by all means, but at least throw a few more servers at it.

There's nothing wrong with gamearena its the same old wireplay.

the new layout, just doesn't feel right..

There's nothing wrong with gamearena its the same old wireplay.

Then why dosnt my first page ever load? I have to laod a page, Then open another one of the same page just to get the damn thing to load. I never had to do this with wireplay..

This is what I get when using that program

http://users.bigpond.net.au/vault/gamearena1.jpg

It's the gamearena servers. They're f***ed, I cant download a thing.